"She has not been well," said Lady Probyn, "and they are sending her
back to England; the climate doesn't suit her. She is to make her
home with us for the present, so I am the gainer. Freda has always
been my favourite niece. I don't know what it is about her that is
so taking; she is not half so pretty as the others."
"But so much more charming," I said. "I wonder she has not married
out in India, as everyone prophesied."
"And so do I," said her aunt. "However, poor child, no doubt, after
having been two years engaged to that very disappointing hero of
Saspataras Hill, she will be shy of venturing to trust anyone
again."
"Do you think that affair ever went very deep?" I ventured to ask.
"It seemed to me that she looked miserable during her engagement,
and happy when it was broken off."
"Quite so," said Lady Probyn; "I noticed the same thing. It was
nothing but a mistake. They were not in the least suited to each
other. By-the-by, I hear that Derrick Vaughan is married."
"Derrick?" I exclaimed; "oh, no, that is a mistake. It is merely
one of the hundred and one reports that are for ever being set
afloat about him.
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